Examining the evidence for an independent semantic analyzer: an ERP study in Spanish

Recent ERP findings challenge the widespread assumption that syntactic and semantic processes are tightly coupled. Syntactically well-formed sentences that are semantically anomalous due to thematic mismatches elicit a P600, the component standardly associated with syntactic anomaly. This ‘thematic P600’ effect has been attributed to detection of semantically plausible thematic relations that conflict with the surface syntactic structure of the sentence, implying a processing architecture with an independent semantic analyzer. A key finding is that the P600 is selectively sensitive to the presence of plausible verb-argument relations, and that otherwise an N400 is elicited (The hearty meal was devouring … vs. The dusty tabletop was devouring …: Kim & Osterhout, 2005). The current study investigates in Spanish whether the evidence for an independent semantic analyzer is better explained by a standard architecture that rapidly integrates multiple sources of lexical, syntactic, and semantic information. The study manipulated the presence of plausible thematic relations, and varied the choice of auxiliary between passive-biased fue and active-progressive biased estaba. Results show a late positivity that appeared as soon as comprehenders detected an improbable combination of subject animacy, auxiliary bias, or verb voice morphology. This effect appeared at the lexical verb in the fue conditions and at the auxiliary in the estaba conditions. The late positivity elicited by surface thematic anomalies was the same, regardless of the presence of a plausible non-surface interpretation, and no N400 effects were elicited. These findings do not implicate an independent semantic analyzer, and are compatible with standard language processing architectures.     

学生团体主题统觉测验研究

对日本版团体主题统觉测验进行了研究,产生了中国版的团体主题统觉测验,被试分别自小学、初中、高中、大学人２７９２名,在此基础上产生了各学龄阶段的常模,研究表明,该测验的信度和效度都比较高,可以在我国各类学校推广使用。     

Rationality and reflection

Christine Korsgaard claims that an agent is less than fully rational if she allows some attitude to inform her deliberation even though she cannot justify doing so. I argue that there is a middle way, which Korsgaard misses, between the claim that our attitudes neither need nor admit of rational assessment, on the one hand, and Korsgaard's claim that the attitudes which inform our deliberation always require justification, on the other: an agent needs reasons to opt out of her concerns – not reasons to opt into them or to stay in. As long as an agent has no good reason to abandon some concern of hers, she is reasonable to harbour it, and to allow it to inform her view of what reasons she has. A rational agent must therefore have the capacity to form higher-order attitudes toward her concerns; but rationality only requires that she exercise that capacity when she has some good reason to do so.     

社会层级的内隐刻板印象：权力与地位的不同作用

采用探测词再认范式,考察社会层级的内隐刻板印象。结果发现,在能力推理上,无论地位高低,个体对高权力推理为积极的反应时显著长于消极,对低权力推理为消极的反应时显著长于积极;在热情推理上,无论权力高低,个体对高地位推理为积极的反应时显著长于消极,对低地位推理为消极的反应时显著长于积极。这表明,权力和地位在热情和能力维度的刻板印象中起着不同的作用,其中权力正向预测能力,地位正向预测热情。     

下属越轨创新对主管阻抑的影响——地位威胁感和权威主义取向的作用

主管阻抑作为一种相对隐蔽的负性领导行为,会潜移默化地削弱下属的绩效表现。有鉴于此,探索主管阻抑的发生机制,能够帮助我们更好地预防主管阻抑。本研究基于125份两时间点的上下级配对数据,探讨了下属越轨创新对主管阻抑的影响机理。结果表明:下属越轨创新会诱发主管阻抑,主管的地位威胁感在此过程中起部分中介作用;此外,主管权威主义取向对下属越轨创新与地位威胁感之间的正向关系具有显著的强化效应。     

The role of incremental parsing in syntactically conditioned word learning

In a series of three experiments, we use children’s noun learning as a probe into their syntactic knowledge as well as their ability to deploy this knowledge, investigating how the predictions children make about upcoming syntactic structure change as their knowledge changes. In the first two experiments, we show that children display a developmental change in their ability to use a noun’s syntactic environment as a cue to its meaning. We argue that this pattern arises from children’s reliance on their knowledge of verbs’ subcategorization frame frequencies to guide parsing, coupled with an inability to revise incremental parsing decisions. We show that this analysis is consistent with the syntactic distributions in child-directed speech. In the third experiment, we show that the change arises from predictions based on verbs’ subcategorization frame frequencies.